Looking Back at Topps Baseball Cards During the Wild 1970's:
Follow me on Twitter: @wthballs

Sunday, July 23, 2017

MISSING IN ACTION-"IN ACTION" 1972 DAVE GIUSTI

Here’s
a “missing” 1972 “In-Action” card for Dave Giusti of the Pittsburgh
Pirates, the National League saves leader the previous year with 30,
helping the Bucs take home the World Championship:

Giusti originally came up with the Houston Colt .45’s as a 22-year old
starter out of Syracuse University in 1962, their inaugural season in
the National League.
He appeared in 22 games and posted a 2-3 record with a bloated 5.62
earned run average before spending the entire 1963 season in the Minor
Leagues.
After some brief MLB action in 1964, Giusti was a big leaguer for good
in 1965, going 8-7 with a 4.32 E.R.A. Along with a shutout as well as
three saves for the newly tabbed “Astros”.
After a few more decent seasons as a starter, he found himself in St.
Louis for the 1969 season, and thus began his transition to the bullpen,
where he’d become a very effective reliever for another eight years,
seven of which were with the Pirates.
Between 1970 and 1973 he topped 20 saves each year and posted solid
E.R.A.’s, including a career-low of 1.93 in 1972 over 54 appearances and
74.2 innings pitched.
By the time he retired after the 1977 season he appeared in 668 games,
133 of them starts, finishing with a 100-93 record and 3.60 E.R.A.,
along with the aforementioned 145 saves.
BTW- I am desperately trying to find a nice color image of Giusti suited
up for his last MLB stint, the Chicago Cubs for the second half of the
1977 season, so I can make up a 1978 “career-capper”! If anyone can
steer me in the right direction I’d be most appreciative!

1 comment:

Great card as always. Tried to email you an image I found with Guisti on the Cubs. Gave you the website as well. Hope you can use it. If not, will continue to keep an eye out for an image. Keep up the good work.